Washington pushing Ukraine to conflict – Lavrov

If peace in Ukraine depended on Russia and most European countries, the chances for achieving it would be higher, the Russian Foreign Minister believes. However, he is sure the US is pushing the Ukrainian leadership towards confrontation.

“We also have partners across the ocean – our American
colleagues – who, according to a lot of evidence, still favor
pushing the Ukrainian leadership towards the path of
confrontation,” Lavrov told Rossiya 1 channel's news show
"Sergey Brilev's News on Saturday".

The minister argues one of the reasons behind the on-going
violence in Ukraine is that not all the military forces fighting
self-defense squads in the country’s south-east are under
government control.

“Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko would like to ease
tension and go on with the truce, but there are also other forces
among the Ukrainian authorities – there are radicals still
controlling or very closely cooperating with armed ultra
nationalists, there is the “Right Sector”, the battalions of Igor
Kolomoysky and other serious groups, who do not obey Ukraine’s
Central Command and the Commander-in-Chief,” Lavrov said.

Poroshenko announced on Friday he was extending the week-long cease-fire for
another three days, which was about to come to an end. During the
cease-fire sporadic fighting still continued throughout
southeastern Ukrainian with both sides of the conflict blaming
each other for outbreaks of violence.

Speaking to journalists in Brussels, the Ukrainian president
accused Russia of doing nothing to help bring peace back to the
country.

"I think now Russia has done nothing [to end the
violence]," he said, as cited by the Guardian.

Lavrov dismissed the accusation. He said that the recent release
of four OSCE observers was one of the examples of Russia’s
involvement in the peace process. According to the minister,
self-defense fighters listen to advice from Russia, but have
their own vision. “It does not mean everything we call for is
being immediately done,” he said.

“Stating that Russia is doing nothing to advance the peace
process is, to say the least, cunning. I hope that was not done
to please those in the West who want a confrontational
scenario,” Lavrov said.

Russia’s foreign minister also commented on the free trade
deal Ukraine and EU signed on Friday. He
reiterated Moscow’s determination to protect its own economic
interests should they be harmed by the agreement.

“We will assess the situation with
the help of a single criterion – what damage will be done to
conditions of trade for Russia and other countries of the free
trade zone within the Commonwealth of Independent
States.”

Lavrov has been
skeptical of the amendments to the Ukrainian constitution
proposed by the president.

The minister gave a
reminder that Ukraine pledged an inclusive and transparent
process to amending its constitution in the Geneva peace
agreement signed in April. Lavrov said Kiev never fulfilled its
promise.

The draft constitution,
according to him, just suddenly “emerged” without any nationwide
debate, concerning the document.

“We should see what will happen to
the draft constitution. Having announced in Strasbourg,
Poroshenko said that it’s submitted to Verkhovna Rada [Ukrainian
parliament], but the discussion will take place later. In other
words the draft is being submitted to the Rada simultaneously to
its presentation in the European council, while it’s not being a
product of agreement between forces within the Ukrainian
parliament, to say nothing of the political forces in the
regions.”